What's in the Package?

No software installation is necessary; the JFK Assassination Archive runs in your web browser, even though all the pages are on the hard disk instead of the internet.

System Requirements

This product does require a computer, with at minimum 4 Gigabytes of RAM (8 GB recommended), running either:

Windows (XP, Vista, 7, or 8)

Mac OSX (10.5 or above)

Supported web browsers include:

Firefox (recommended)

Safari

Internet Explorer 9 or above

Google Chrome and Opera are NOT supported

Support for Owners of the JFK Assassination Archive

The JFK Assassination Archive has a full help system, including introductory tutorials, a Frequently Asked Questions page, and special help pages on How to Search and other topics.

If you have a problem, refer to the main Help page on the disk, or the printed manual, for information on obtaining help via email.

About the Joint Venture

This product is a joint venture of the Assassination Archives and Research Center, History Matters, and the Mary Ferrell Foundation. History Matters produced and distributes this disk, and should be contacted regarding any issues. The AARC provided most of the documents on the disk and holds the copyright with History Matters. The Mary Ferrell Foundation provided some of the documents and other resources, as well as some technology used to make it.

JFK Assassination Archive

Now available for your desktop - a unparalleled personal research tool for studying Kennedy assassination records.

This page provides information about the JFK Assassination Archive, a personal and portable JFK assassination research tool. Plug this hard disk into your computer and access over 1 million pages of documents and other resources, using sophisticated and fast browsing and searching tools. Available for purchase right now.

About the JFK Assassination Archive

The JFK Assassination Archive is a research tool produced as a joint venture between the Assassination Archives and Research Center, History Matters, and the Mary Ferrell Foundation. It is a portable USB disk drive containing much of the MFF's archived primary source materials, along with a next-generation set of tools to access them which goes beyond that offered online. See the following Feature sections for all the details on this amazing new research tool.

Features of the JFK Assassination Archive

Each section below may be expanded for details and screenshots -click any "more" link.

Million-Page Document Archive and More

The disk contains the JFK portion of the MFF's document archive (with PDF copies of all documents), along with 15 chapter-length book excerpts, photo and audio archives, and interactive resources....more »

This is NOT a duplicate of the MFF website; not included from MFF website are non-JFK documents, Starting Points, Essay & Journal Archives, videos, and some other pages.

Enhanced Document Viewer

The viewer used to view scanned document pages is faster than the MFF website's, and features the ability to smoothly zoom in and out of a page. It also has a keyboard interface for fast page-flipping and keyboard access to other features....more »

Powerful New Search Engine

A completely new search engine offers many enhancements, including date-range filtering and other ways to constrain searches. The system also searches photo captions and other data. RIF Search is also improved....more »

Written for this disk from the ground up, this powerful new search engine features:

Auto-Linking to References

Document references like WR222, 4WH17, CE 399, CD207, p.11, 104-10400-10010, and so on appear in many places, including document pages, Mary Ferrell Database entries, and elsewhere. These references are now links; just click to see the document....more »

Auto-linking will save you tons of time chasing down references:

The JFK Collection is filled with references to other documents. A great many of these references follow a standardized format to refer to:

Warren Commission Report pages (e.g., WR212)

Warren Commission Hearings page (e.g., 5WH129)

Warren Commission Exhibits (e.g., CE 399)

Warren Commission Documents (e.g., CD 5)

HSCA reports or appendices (e.g., AR330 or 7AH108)

RIF-based records (e.g., 104-10400-10010)

Whereever these references appear in a proper format, whether in document pages, Mary Ferrell Database or Chronology entries, or other pages, they are automatically converted into links. Just click to go to the referenced page!

RIF Tools

More than 100,000 documents feature the National Archive's Resource Identification Forms (RIF)—these forms may be searched, and other special disk features make use of them....more »

Click the RIF tab above a document page to see the RIF form at a glance in text format. Then use the right-side column to instantly find all documents with matching fields - Originator, From, To, Date, Subjects, and so on. The Search page also features special tools for searching RIF form data.

Enhanced Photo Archive

Photo galleries now can be perused via a convenient thumbnail slider. Also, full-resolution versions of each image are available right on the disk. Photo captions are searchable, so photos are included in search results...more »

Photo archive features easy browsing, full-resolution images, search:

The Photo Archive features a thumbnail strip for easy browsing of images in each collection, with a medium-resolution display of the selected image. Full-resolution versions of images are a click away. Plus, the captions are searchable. Photos appear in search results with a thumbnail of the photo and a text snippet from the caption; click to view the photo in its gallery.

Enhanced Interactive Resources

The disk contains three document walkthroughs and four interactive projects. Two of these, the Mary Ferrell Database, and Stewart Galanor's Dealey Plaza Witness Database, have been significantly enhanced for this disk....more »

Enhanced features of Mary Ferrell Database:

Much improved browsing experience

Many references are auto-linked to the documents

As on MFF website, search using search sidebar

Enhanced features of Dealey Plaza Witness Database:

View more than one witness location at a time

Browse witness location dots and click to view witness

Embedded search interface to look up names and words

All other features from History Matters version

PDF Copies

Like the MFF website, the standard document viewing engine is a customized one. But every document on the disk has an accompanying PDF file, and these load quickly and can be read in the browser or any other PDF viewer....more »

Fast access to a PDF copy of every document:

Click the PDF icon near the top-right of the document viewer to bring up a PDF copy of the document for viewing in your browser. These are the same PDF copies available at cost on the MFF website; on this disk, they load much much faster and are included at no extra charge.

How Does This Product Relate to the MFF Website?

There is certainly substantial overlap between the JFK Assassination Archive and the Mary Ferrell Foundation website. What's the difference? Why this product?

First, the disk does not contain all the materials on the website. See the above Feature explanations for details, but basically the JFK Assassination Archive is limited to the JFK documents (not MLK, RFK, Watergate, etc.), and also does not have the Starting Points, essays, journals, or other introductory materials (it does feature 15 chapter-length book excerpts).

What it does offer is a set of browsing and searching tools which are a substantial cut above what is available online. These include new search features, better tools for document viewing including smooth zoom, PDF versions of all documents, automatic linking of inter-document references, enhanced versions of interactive tools like Mary Ferrell's Database and Stewart Galanor's Dealey Plaza Witness Database, and more. See the Features above for full details. Plus, it's fast and portable, and requires no internet connection, and no software installation.

This disk has been a testbed for new technology development, but a full rewrite of the Mary Ferrell website has not been practical. At some point these features may become available online. In the meantime, the JFK Assassination Archive stands alongside the MFF website as a premier research tool for those doing research using primary documents.

Another motivation for this disk was simply to get these important documents into more hands, after a decades-long hard-fought battle for open access to JFK records.

For More Information

If you have more questions not answered on this page, please email History Matters, the creator of this disk.